Media
Feb 12, 2014
By Gary Truit
The National Corn Growers Association's Ethanol Committee met last week in Detroit, Michigan to discuss everything from the latest research on ethanol use in small engines to growing opportunities for distiller's grains. While there, the group also met with representatives of Ford, Chrysler, General Motors and the Environmental Protection Agency. "Meeting in Detroit provided us with a great opportunity to talk with the Big Three auto manufacturers," said NCGA Ethanol Committee Chair Jeff Sandborn. "They confirmed ethanol has a lot to offer because it provides non-toxic, economical octane, but we face significant challenges particularly the policy arena."
Sandborn, a grower from Portland, Mich., noted ethanol provides the performance characteristics auto-makers want and does so more economically than any other source. However, they are also looking direction from the Environmental Protection Agency on specific future standards so they know what engines to design and what ethanol blends might work best.
"We also met with EPA officials while in Detroit. It is clear that NCGA can and probably should step up communications and education with EPA and other governmental agencies to assure they have the best technical information available related to ethanol's potential," Sandborn said.
Read the original story here : Ethanol Fuel's High Octane and Clean Characteristics Key to Future Use
Feb 19, 2014
ORLANDO, Fla - The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) unveiled a new study today by ABF Economics entitled “Contribution of the Ethanol Industry to the Economy of the United States” at the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, Fla.
The study examines the nationwide impact of the ethanol industry in 2013 on job creation, the economy, household income, and foreign oil displacement.
Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the RFA, commented on the new study, noting, “Last year we fought, and we continue to fight, against naysayers determined to end the Renewable Fuel Standard. These numbers should silence the opposition as the ethanol industry is clearly helping individuals, families, communities, and our country by creating jobs, displacing oil imports, and contributing to America’s economy.”
The new ABF Economics study found that the 13.3 billion gallons of ethanol produced created 86,503 jobs and sustained an additional 300,277 indirect and induced jobs.
At the national level the ethanol industry contributed $44 billion to America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while adding $30.7 billion to household incomes.
Additionally, the 13.3 billion gallons of ethanol displaced 476 million barrels of imported oil, saving Americans $48.2 billion in oil imports. That equals roughly 13 percent of last year’s expected crude oil and petroleum imports.
“The ethanol industry continues to make a significant contribution to the economy in terms of job creation, generation of tax revenue, and displacement of imported crude oil. The $40 billion ethanol producers spent on raw materials, other inputs, and goods and services during 2013 contributed more than $44 billion to the nation’s GDP and supported a significant number of jobs in all sectors of the economy.
"The use of ethanol also continues to enhance the nation’s energy independence. The dollars spent on domestically produced ethanol instead of imported crude oil and petroleum products is money that is spent and reinvested in the American economy,” said John Urbanchuk, managing partner of ABF Economics.
The study conducted by ABF Economics, and commissioned by the RFA, can be found here.
Read the RFA's original press release here : New Study Shows Powerful Impact of Ethanol Industry on Jobs & Energy Independence
American Ethanol Enhances Partnership With Richard Childress Racing and Driver Austin Dillon in 2014
Feb 20, 2014
Welcome, NC - American Ethanol is enhancing its partnership with Richard Childress Racing and driver Austin Dillon for the 2014 NASCAR season. Beginning with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway on March 2, Dillon will race the No. 3 American Ethanol Chevrolet SS in select races during the 2014 season.
"American Ethanol is extremely pleased to once again partner with Austin Dillon, Richard Childress and the entire RCR team to help promote a sustainable homegrown American fuel that is better for our environment, reduces our dependence on foreign oil and creates jobs right here in the U.S., while revitalizing rural economies across America and saving consumers at the pump," said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy.
American Ethanol, launched by Growth Energy and the National Corn Growers Association along with the support of other partners, is a breakthrough brand that seeks to expand consumer awareness of the benefits of ethanol and E15. Since the program launch for the 2011 season, NASCAR drivers have run more than 5 million miles on renewable Sunoco Green E15.
“We want to show the people coast-to-coast there is a great alternative to imported oil and our association with NASCAR and RCR is doing that extremely well," said Jon Holzfaster, a Paxton, NE farmer and chairman of the National Corn Growers Association's NASCAR Advisory Committee. "Ethanol is also responsible for bringing a rural renaissance from Main Street to the family farm.”
American Ethanol will also serve as a major associate sponsor for Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet for the full 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season joining Dow, Cheerios, Realtree Outdoors, Bass Pro Shops and the University of Northwestern Ohio.
“Homegrown biofuels like American Ethanol have stepped up to help our nation’s economy,” said Dillon. “NASCAR drivers have run more than 5 million competitive miles on Sunoco Green E15 and I know we will reach even more milestones together. I am proud to wear the American Ethanol colors in NASCAR and I hope I can bring them to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2014.”
Dillon is an official spokesperson for American Ethanol, the most commercially-viable alternative that America currently has to offset the economic impact of foreign petroleum. Corn ethanol reduces emissions by 59 percent. And by strengthening America’s energy independence, ethanol helps create American jobs – studies have shown that for every $1 sent overseas for oil, $1.55 leaves the U.S. economy.
Read the original story here : American Ethanol Enhances Partnership With Richard Childress Racing and Driver Austin Dillon in 2014
Feb 24, 2014
By Mikkel Pates
FARGO, N.D. — The North Dakota Cornvention 2014 focused heavily on the benefits of corn ethanol, an industry facing a hit with a proposed reduction to the Renewable Fuels Standard.
The North Dakota Corn Growers Association and North Dakota Corn Council put on the event, which featured speaker Kent Satrang, CEO of PetroServe USA. The company owns a chain of 21 convenience stores in Minnesota and North Dakota, leading the nation with 65 bioblender pumps. It operates all six private-label E15 stations in North Dakota.
Satrang said that after Gov. Jack Dalrymple helped kick off an E15 (15 percent ethanol blend) campaign in Bismarck last fall, sales have “taken off.”
Dean Drake, president of the Defour Group LLC of Fenton, Mich., and researcher for the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, said ethanol’s most valuable use is an oxygenate, even as new oil fields such as the Bakken crank out lower-octane oil. He suggests establishing a new category of “mid-level” ethanol.
If E10 is used in older cars and a new class is established as a new regular, Drake sees a healthy, gradual increase in ethanol consumption.
He said that since the federal Ethanol Tax Credit and Tariff expired in late 2011, the price of ethanol dropped and is getting close to the “energy price parity” level, where a dollar of energy in ethanol is the same as a dollar’s worth of E10 regular.
“At that point, consumers will save money on ethanol, period,” he said. “Gasoline, for the first time since the beginning of the automotive age, is going to have a serious competitor.”
Pam Keck, director of biofuel programs and business development for the National Corn Growers Association, told farmers in the crowd to use and become ambassadors for ethanol.
Keck said about 30 percent of the nation’s corn crop goes into ethanol production, but the public doesn’t realize most is still used for feed. Corn as feed accounts for 39.5 percent of the U.S. crop. Two other categories — 9.2 percent goes into distiller’s grains and 8.4 percent into exports — are both feed. Another 2 percent goes into seed, food and industrial use.
An RFS cut
Farmers are growing more corn per acre now than ever. Corn has become more efficient since 1980, cutting its per-bushel land use by 30 percent, soil loss by 67 percent, irrigation water by 53 percent, energy by 43 percent, and greenhouse gas emissions by 36 percent. Ethanol had a goal of being 20 percent better than petroleum for greenhouse gas emissions by 2022, but now is closing in on being 50 percent better, Keck said.
The original RFS 2 would have required 18.15 billion gallons, or 14.4 billion gallons if advanced biofuels are subtracted.
The EPA proposed a decrease to 15.21 billion gallons of ethanol, including 13.01 billion gallons of corn ethanol.
“If they dropped it by this amount, that represents about a half a billion bushels of corn,” Keck said, adding that it will confound agricultural planting and marketing, threaten the viability of corn growers and ethanol producers, and undermine business plans for future biofuel optimization and expansion, among other things.
She encouraged farmers to buy flex-fuel vehicles and put ethanol in them.
Feb 24, 2014
By Cindy Zimmerman
We’ve heard a lot about how higher ethanol blends might affect the producers of the green fuel and the impacts to consumers on the other end. But what about the viewpoint of those who have to build the vehicles on which these higher blends would run? Representatives from General Motors and Mercedes-Benz were among the experts on a panel at the National Ethanol Conference discussing “Driving Through the Blend Wall” from the automotive perspective.
Renewable Fuels Association vice president for technical services Kristy Moore moderated the panel which included Bill Woebkenberg, U.S. Fuels Technical and Regulatory Affairs, Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America; Coleman Jones, Biofuels Manager, General Motors; and Robert McCormick, Fuels Performance Platform Leader, National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Woebkenberg pointed out that flex fuels are already here and should be attractive to consumers, considering the high-performance, high-octane features.
“It’s not a filler fuel; it’s a race fuel,” and he believes overcoming consumers’ misperceptions of poor performance is key. But he and his colleague from GM, said carmakers are worried less about the rhetoric that might be swirling around flex fuels and more about what the final rules coming out of Washington might say.
“Automakers are a regulated industry, and we pay a lot more attention to the regulations than we pay attention to the words, because these regulations are the deeds by which we have to live with our business and have to be distinguished from the words we hear,” said Jones.
McCormick offered some insight to their review of 43 studies about ethanol, which should give the rulemakers more information by which those automakers have to live. He said overall they found no failures of E15 in performance.
“The use of E15, in our opinion, is likely to have little impact on 2001 and newer model year vehicles,” he told the audience gathered.
McCormick concluded the panel saying there are paths forward with the higher ethanol blends in the market, for carmakers and consumers alike.
Read the original story here : Driving Through The Blend Wall
Jan 13, 2014
By Sen. Amy Kobuchar
From opening our first E15 station, to blending higher amounts of biodiesel, to developing processes to make renewable fuel out of new feed stocks, Minnesota is leading the way and driving the next generation of renewable fuels.
We are using our resources and developing new energy technologies that are creating jobs, increasing domestic energy production and decreasing our dependence on foreign oil.
Unfortunately, a recent proposal from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to lower the biofuel targets for 2014 threatens the progress we have made.
The EPA’s proposed Renewable Fuel Standard rule would, for the first time, allow oil companies to blend incrementally less renewable fuel into the gasoline and diesel supply. It would create a disincentive for fuel retailers to install the blender pumps that are needed to continue to increase our use of biofuels.
Without that infrastructure in place, we never will be able to develop the next generation of biofuels.
This comes at the same time when the industry already has been challenged by the uneven playing field created by the fact that oil companies continue to get billions of dollars in subsidies while the ethanol subsidy has been eliminated.
In Minnesota, the damages would be felt in communities across our state. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture estimates the proposed rule would lead to 1,500 lost jobs and cost the state $600 million in lost economic activity.
The rule change would create uncertainty around a program that has proven to be successful. Because six years into a 15-year policy, the RFS is working. It’s the equivalent of a football coach benching the quarterback midway through a winning season.
With so much progress, now is not the time for drastic changes.
Our economy is in a better place as a result of the RFS. Nationally, the biofuels industry supports more than 350,000 jobs. These are jobs that have been grown in communities across Minnesota.
With 10 percent of our fuel supply now coming from biofuels, this policy also has played a major role in reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Since 2005, our dependence on foreign fuels has fallen from 60 to 40 percent as we continue to move toward homegrown energy sources.
Last but not least, consumers are benefiting from competition at the pump. In Minnesota, sales of E85 have doubled since the beginning of the year because the RFS was helping consumers save at the pump when they were filling up with renewable fuels.
It’s also worth noting that at the same time we are seeing an expansion in biofuels, gas prices — while not as low as we would like — are down, and corn prices have gone down by 45 percent.
All these benefits are why I recently organized a bipartisan meeting in my office with 15 other senators and the EPA administrator to highlight just how important a strong RFS is to rural economies and to urge changes to the proposed rule. It was a constructive conversation, with Democratic and Republican senators from states as diverse as Hawaii, North Dakota and Michigan making the argument for a strong RFS.
I believe that legislative policy works best when it is stable, predictable and provides businesses the ability to make long-term investments. We need to provide the certainty farmers and biofuel producers need to make plans and investments, and that is why I will continue to fight to get a long-term farm bill done, and why we must work together to fix the proposed rule and preserve the integrity of the RFS.
Read original story here Biofuel Standards Help Small-Town Minn
West Central Tribune
Jan 14, 2014
By Tom Cherveny
Neither icy nor wind-blown roads have stopped Dave Frederickson, Minnesota’s Commissioner of Agriculture from doing what he wants the Post Office to do. He wants to see no fewer than 100,000 letters delivered to Gina McCarthy, director of the Environmental Protection Agency urging her to drop the proposal to reduce the renewable fuels standard.
“Wrongheaded and wrong directed,’’ said Frederickson of the proposal Tuesday at the Granite Falls Energy plant.
Frederickson and staff are visiting ethanol plants across Minnesota rallying support for the letter campaign.
McCarthy has proposed reducing the RFS by 10 percent. The reduction would represent a $610 million loss in economic activity in Minnesota.
The state could lose more than 1,500 bio-fuel related jobs, according to Charlie Poster, assistant commissioner of agriculture.
Clean air, rural jobs, and value-added income for agriculture are all at stake, according to those who braved the wind-whipped roads Tuesday morning.
There’s the threat of more harm down the road, according to Ron Fagen, founder of Fagen Engineering in Granite Falls, one of the country’s leaders in the biofuels industry.
Second generation ethanol plants “will be dead in their tracks if the RFS is shut down,’’ Fagen told those who gathered.
Three cellulosic ethanol plants are opening using new technology that holds promise of success, he said.
Fagen also emphasized the importance of ethanol to agriculture in the region. When he began equity campaigns for the state’s first ethanol plants, the 10-year average price for corn was $1.85 a bushel.
McCarthy has indicated that her proposal to reduce the RFS is only a draft at this point. The proposal came after 169 in Congress signed a letter urging a reduction. With declines in U.S. gasoline consumption, they argue that we could exceed the 10 percent blend wall if the RFS is not reduced.
The EPA proposal would represent a 1.4 billion gallon reduction in the current RFS for the U.S. It represents a 110 million gallon reduction for ethanol in Minnesota.
Many in Congress continue to support the current RFS. Staff for U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken told the board of governors at Granite Falls Energy that there is strong bipartisan support to maintain the RFS.
“Now is not the time to pull the rug out from under the (biofuels) industry.’’ That was the message that a recent, bipartisan delegation presented to McCarthy in a face-to-face meeting, according to Andy Martin, aide to Klobuchar.
“We have to show them how important it is to rural Minnesota and rural America,’’ said Steve Christensen, CEO and general manager of Granite Falls Energy. He pointed out that the local plant purchased 20 million bushels of corn in the past year while it directly provides 38 good-paying jobs for the local economy.
Frederickson said he believes that the message and letter campaign is having an impact in Washington. He said he’s hearing more from farm and rural groups about the RFS than the farm bill right now. “I think we’re cranking it up pretty good,’’ he said of the campaign.
He made visits to Morris, Fergus Falls and Benson to start this week’s campaign Monday.
He expects to wind up his visits to the state’s ethanol plants in the coming week. He will attend a rural summit being hosted by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad Jan. 23 in Des Moines, Iowa, to address the RFS issue.
Frederickson and Poster said letters need to reach the EPA director by a Jan. 28 deadline.
“Unless we flood the EPA with letters, the proposed rule is a 10 percent cut,’’ said Poster.
Read the original story here Ethanol Producers Campaign Against Proposed Cut To Renewable Fuel Standard
(The Journal, Jan 10) - Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MSGA) officials and other corn ethanol and biofuel advocates urged public comment on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal to reduce corn ethanol under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Thursday at the Minnesota Ag EXPO at the Verizon Wireless Center.
The EPA proposed a 1.4 billion gallon reduction in how much corn ethanol will be required under the RFS, the federal law that helps get domestic, renewable, cleaner-burning corn ethanol blended into the nation's fuel supply. The reduction would impact already low corn prices and negatively affect 2014 planting decisions, according to the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA).
The NGGA maintained that according to Louisiana State University research, cutting ethanol use by 1.4 billion gallons would increase gasoline prices by 5.7 cents a gallon and lead to a $10.3 billion windfall for big oil companies.
Read the rest of the story here: Corn Growers Urge EPA Comments To Keep Ethanol Quotas
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Jan 24, 2014
By Philip K. Verleger, Jr
Consumers paid $ 3.25 to 3.30 per gallon for gasoline over the holidays. This was a large savings compared to the $ 4.11 they paid in June 2008 when oil prices peaked. Those days are distant and becoming forgettable to everyone. However, but for action taken in 2007, consumers could easily have paid $4.25 or even $5/gallon for gasoline this Christmas. To be blunt, we got lucky. For once, the U.S. government did something that paid very large dividends.
I realize most Americans doubt that Washington policymakers can accomplish anything. Well, in this case they did. In 2007, Democrats and Republicans worked together to pass the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA). This law requires U.S. oil refiners to blend increasing amounts of renewable fuels into gasoline and diesel. In 2013, the oil industry had to mix almost one million barrels per day of renewables into America’s motor fuels. This volume saved American and world consumers from yet another oil shock.
Now this is not the story one hears today from politicians, oil industry lobbyists, or even some economists. Most commentators today believe the renewable fuels program has raised gasoline prices. The American Petroleum Institute, the trade organization for Big Oil, has been particularly aggressive in financing studies that make this assertion. Other organizations such as the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers have followed suit. Unfortunately, the Obama administration and many in Congress cannot see through the smoke and mirrors. Thus in November, the administration issued draft regulations to reduce the renewable fuels blending requirement for oil refiners, thus allowing the industry to push more oil onto consumers.
In its successful misinformation campaign, the oil industry maintain that consumers paid as much as ten or even twenty cents more per gallon for gasoline in 2013 than they might have had refiners been free of the renewables mandate. What the industry omits is that consumers actually saved $1 per gallon or more in 2013 because the greater renewable supplies replaced crude oil volumes that countries such as Libya, Iraq, Nigeria, Iran, Sudan, and several others failed to produce. Although no one notices, 2013 saw in aggregate the largest disruption of global oil production since at least 1990, according to a US Energy Information Administration report. The amount of lost output reached more than three million barrels per day at one point, which translates to three percent of global capacity.
Much of the “missing” oil was made up by increased output from Saudi Arabia. But most experts agree that the Saudis produced at or very close to capacity in 2013. The country managed to substitute probably two-thirds or maybe three-quarters of the lost oil. It could not, however, replace all of it.
Some in the oil industry likely wish the volume Saudi Arabia could not match had remained lost. Oil company officials and leaders of oil-exporting nations would have cheered if crude prices averaged $150 per barrel rather than $108 in 2013. Make no mistake, prices would have hit such levels had none of the three million barrels per day of lost output been replaced.
Fortunately, that did not happen. The lost oil was supplanted by ethanol and other renewable fuels. EISA did just what its title proclaimed: it assured consumers of energy security (and lower-priced gasoline). The act protected consumers by introducing one million barrels per day of renewables into the nation’s energy picture. The extra biofuel arrived just in time to make up for the diminished production from Libya, Nigeria, and Sudan. This marks a very rare triumph for US energy policy. As one who has followed this issue closely for forty-two years, I am hard pressed to find many such successes, certainly none of this magnitude.
This achievement has gone unnoticed. As noted, the EPA has issued rules that, if enacted, will roll back the renewable fuels program. The agency apparently has failed to notice that consumers are enjoying gasoline prices possibly one-third lower than they would be absent the renewables program. Even worse, the EPA issued these proposed rules under the bogus assertion that refiners could not comply with the standards mandated by Congress. The bureaucrats, who seem to think the renewables program has raised gasoline prices, believe their actions will lower them and thus give consumers a break.
Again, the truth is just the opposite. The EPA’s new regulations will likely boost global crude prices and gasoline prices, unless of course political stability somehow returns to the key oil-producing countries where production fell in 2013. In other words, the EPA strategy will work if Libya’s situation stabilizes so the country can increase output, if Iraq can assuage Al-Qaeda and restore a working government in Fallujah, if the war between Sudan and South Sudan can be resolved, and if the West and Iran can come to some agreement regarding the Iranians’ desire to build nuclear weapons.
Frankly, the Obama administration is foolish to think these international problems can be solved. It should return to the path ordered by Congress in 2007 and ignore the bellyaching of oil refiners. The renewable fuels program saved consumers billions in 2013. If allowed to operate as written, it will save them far more in 2014.
Read the original story here : RFS Kept Gas Prices Down
By Tom Cherveny
March 18, 2014
ATWATER — Bushmills Ethanol is helping lower the bar, and in this case that’s a very good thing.
The Atwater plant has joined the growing number of ethanol producers in the country reducing the water they use, and shrinking their environmental footprint by doing so.
Bushmills Ethanol on Feb. 28 began operating a newly installed zero liquid discharge system built by U.S. Waters Services of St. Michael, Minn.
It’s the fifth such system the company has installed at ethanol plants in Minnesota, according to Christian Hess, area manager with the water services company.
The $3.8 million inves.tment is expected to reduce the Bushmills Ethanol plant’s overall use of water by one-third.
It works like this: Water that was previously discharged into Judicial Ditch 17, part of the Middle Fork of the Crow River watershed, is now returned and re-conditioned. That in turn reduces the amount of water the plant must draw from its wells, and ends the plant’s liquid discharges entirely.
Bushmills Ethanol General Manager Erik Osmon cautions that it’s too early to know for certain, but he said the new system should reduce the amount of water used per gallon of ethanol produced from about 2.9 gallons to 2 gallons.
Hess noted that when the industry was first launched, the ratio of water to ethanol produced was as much as 11 gallons to 1. The industry has steadily made gains in efficiency: The standard today is believed to be somewhere between 3 to 4 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol produced.
Osmon said it is part of a good neighbor approach by the farmer cooperative.
“We are in Minnesota,’’ said Osmon. “The Pollution Control Agency has made water very much a priority both in quality and the amount used, and we’ve reacted accordingly. They didn’t tell us to do this.’’
Bushmills is in compliance with its discharge permit, but in 2012 it paid civil penalties for previous violations.
The new system allows the plant to recycle the water coming mainly from the cooling system.
The U.S. Water Services system uses a cold lime treatment and softening process, not unlike that used by some municipalities to supply drinking water. At Bushmills, the water drawn from the aquifer and the recycled water are mixed and treated in a multi-step process. All of the elements that are naturally found in the local groundwater — magnesium, iron, strontium, and ferrium among them — are greatly reduced in the softening process.
Their removal benefits operations at the plant, as these minerals otherwise concentrate and adversely affect the plant’s boiler and water cooling systems. The new, largely gravity-fed treatment system also reduces overall energy usage.
An important part of the treatment process involves adjusting the pH of the water with the use of carbon dioxide. Bushmills will be using the carbon dioxide that results from its ethanol production in the water treatment system, furthering reducing its carbon footprint, noted Hess.
The lime used in the treatment process is captured at the end of the cycle, pressed dry and formed into cakes for easy transport. At this point the lime will be placed in an approved landfill. The company is working out an arrangement so that in the future the lime can be spread on farm fields to the east, where it will help reduce soil acidity.
Work on the project began last November, and this winter’s severity made it a challenge for the construction workers, said Hess. Osmon said the project was completed right on schedule and the start-up went very well.
U.S. Water Services has installed similar zero liquid discharge in Minnesota ethanol plants including: Highwater Ethanol, Lamberton; Granite Falls Energy, Granite Falls; Biofuel Energy, Fairmont; and Guardian Energy, Janesville.
Read the original story here : With New Discharge System, Bushmills Ethanol Expects To Shrink Its Water Usage
March 19, 2014
Washington -Today, the White House, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are hosting an event on the topic of climate change. Various technology companies, scientists, and other climate experts will meet to discuss the possible impacts of climate change and announce data-driven technologies to build products and services to better prepare our Nation for those impacts.
Commenting on this event, which will include John Podesta, Counselor to the President, among others, Bob Dinneen, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, highlights the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) as a vital piece of any plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and curb future climate change:
“Today’s meeting is about finding successful ways to address climate change, including the use of data to help limit future impacts. That makes sense and the effort should be applauded. But it should be noted that the single most effective program this Nation has for reducing GHG emissions is the RFS. Last year alone, the use of biofuels like ethanol and the RFS reduced CO2-equivalent GHG emissions from transportation by 37.9 million metric tons. That’s akin to removing 7.9 million cars from the road for an entire year.”
Dinneen continued, “A recent Life Cycle Associates study found that corn ethanol reduces GHG emissions by 32% compared to petroleum in 2012, including hypothetical land use change emissions. The same study found that corn ethanol reduces GHG emissions by 37-40% compared to tight oil from fracking and tar sands.
“Why then, is the Administration contemplating a reduction in the RFS? Why would the Administration scale back its most successful carbon program? Rolling back the RFS as proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency would INCREASE carbon emissions by some 3.7 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent GHG. That’s like adding 725,000 cars to the road overnight! Talking about climate change is one thing.
"But the Administration has the opportunity to do something about it by restoring the RFS to its statutorily mandated levels for carbon-reducing biofuels.”
Read the original story here : RFS Is Single Most Effective Policy on Greenhouse Gas Reductions
Sept 13, 2017
By Erin Voegele
The U.S. Energy Information Administration has increased its 2017 and 2018 ethanol production forecasts in the September edition of its Short-Term Energy Outlook. The U.S. is now expected to produce 1.03 million barrels of ethanol per day this year, increasing to 1.04 million barrels per day next year. Last year, production averaged 1 million barrels per day. In the August STEO, the EIA predicted 2017 ethanol production would average 1.02 million barrels per day, falling to 1.01 million barrels per day in 2018.
On a quarterly basis, the EIA predicts ethanol production will average 1.03 million barrels per day during the third and fourth quarters of this year. During the first quarter of 2018, ethanol production is expected to be maintained at 1.03 million barrels per day, increasing to 1.04 million barrels per day during the second and third quarters, and increasing to 1.05 million barrels per day during the fourth quarter of next year.
The EIA currently predicts an average of 940,000 barrels of ethanol per day will be blended into motor gasoline this year, maintaining the 2016 blend volume. In 2018, ethanol blending is expected to increase to 960,000 barrels per day.
The STEO also notes U.S. regular gasoline prices reached $2.69 per gallon on Sept. 11, up 29 cents per gallon from Aug. 28 and the highest weekly average since August 2015. EIA forecasts the average U.S. regular gasoline retail price will be $2.61 per gallon in September, falling to $2.40 per gallon in October. These prices are 25 cents per gallon and 10 cents per gallon higher, respectively, when compared to the forecasts made in the August STEO. Regular gasoline prices are expected to fall to $2.23 per gallon in December.
The EIA’s most recent weekly ethanol production data shows production reached 1.047 million barrels per day the week ending Sept. 8, down from a near record setting 1.06 million barrels per day the previous week. The current weekly ethanol production record sits at 1.061 million barrels per day and was set the week ending Jan. 27.
The EIA’s most recent monthly import data shows the U.S. imported 252,000 barrels of ethanol in June, all from Brazil. During the same month, the U.S. exported 2.21 million barrels of ethanol, primarily to Canada, Brazil, and India.
Ethanol producers looking to expand beyond our shores may be looking at China as an export destination. RFA CEO, Bob Dineen, said in a recent column in Ethanol Producer Magazine that the RFA, along with Growth Energy, joined the USDA in a recent trip to China to explore the potential of exporting ethanol and dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) to Asia's second largest economy.
The American Lung Association of Minnesota is hosting a series of workshops on B10 this month to help diesel retailers and farmers better understand the state's requirement for diesel and biodiesel fuel.
From July 1 to Sept 30, all #2 diesel fuel in Minnesota will contain 10% biodiesel (B10). Following September, all #2 diesel will revert to containing 5% biodiesel (B5). From 2015 onwards, B10 will be available from April 1 to Sept 30 while B5 will be available in the other months.
With the EPA's decision on 2014's Renewable Volume Obligations (RVO) for ethanol production expected to be announced in the near future, the agency may want to take a closer look at current crude oil prices which have been trending upwards.
A strong basis for the Renewable Fuel Standard, which was enacted in 2005 and expanded under the Energy Independence Security Act (EISA) in 2007 was to wean America off foreign oil.
The shale oil boom is now leading to crude oil exports from the US for the first time since the 1970s, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The report said two companies have been given permission to export shale oil, lifting an export ban on crude oil that has been in place since the 70s.